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by Ravi Corea - Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society

Perhaps the most important reason why we have not made any progress in regard to biodiversity conservation worldwide over the past several decades is that most people regard the preservation of nature as a luxury - something to tend to after we have attended to the more "important" problems says, Dr. Don Melnick, the Director of the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation at the Columbia University in the City of New York. His concern is that this hierarchy of priorities and actions does not reflect what our best science tells us: the health of ecosystems is directly and causally linked to disease, water quality, climate change, poverty, hunger, human conflict and economic growth.

He agrees that there is no doubt that we have to eradicate famine, disease, malnutrition, unclean water, human conflict, and desperate poverty and put in place practices to limit them in the future. But as Dr. Melnick points out, these issues, no matter how troubling and in need of action, are symptoms of more far-reaching causes: the destruction, fragmentation and degradation of natural systems, which have evolved over millions of years and buffer us from disease, purify our drinking water, pollinate our fields, remove carbon from the atmosphere, and provide natural capital to our national and international economies.

Accordingly if we don't find an effective way to communicate this relationship between ecosystem health and human quality of life, says Dr. Melnick, we stand little chance of stemming the destruction of nature and alleviating disease, poverty, human conflict and despair. As Bernard Nietchmann quoted in the Battle Fields of Ashes and Mud, "Degraded land and resources are as much a reason for taking up arms as are repression, invasion and ideology."

Another important reason why we have not made any progress in regard to biodiversity conservation could be that we have not really focused our conservation efforts and attentions on focal groups that have the biggest impact on biodiversity. It seems the most strenuous efforts to save biodiversity and protected areas will have to be invested at the interfaces where some of the world's poorest, ecologically illiterate and resource deprived people have access to some of the world's most species-rich ecosystems.

While the developed and affluent societies of the world have experienced amazing advances in communication and information technologies, knowledge, skills, human well being, and economic opportunities, access to such resources has mainly bi-passed these marginalized communities. That is why for the past 6 years the Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society (SLWCS), a non-profit, tax exempt charitable organization based in the USA have always approached the issues of biodiversity conservation, from the point of view of human development, capacity building, community participation and sustainable economic development.

It is essential for local people to be involved in biodiversity conservation efforts for them to succeed. They should also see a direct benefit coming to them from the resources expended on these projects and also gain some intellectual benefit by participating in the projects themselves. As the Kenyan wildlife conservationist, the late Michael Werikhe said in 1990, "conservation cannot be imposed from above. It must have the support of the people."

So what is the New Paradigm? The New Paradigm calls for the world international conservation forum to make all effort to elevate these marginalized people socio-economically to the same level as those who perceive the inherent, intrinsic, aesthetic, economical and biological value of biodiversity, and the need to conserve and manage it in a sustainable manner.

In the context of this New Paradigm "sustainable management" is NOT espousing sustainable harvesting of forest products and wildlife. Our knowledge of ecosystems at most is rudimentary and some of these highly depleted environments in Sri Lanka must be already at critical thresholds and we don't see sustainable harvesting as a solution for their long-term conservation. Instead we rather empower these communities with the knowledge and skills they lack to connect with the world outside.

Field research will continue to play an important and crucial role by providing information to develop strategic planning to manage these ecosystems. But equal measure must be given to diminish existing human threats to these ecosystems by addressing the socio-economic issues that burden these communities and force them to adversely affect their environments.

Generally literate middleclass and affluent city people tend to have a higher awareness of environmental issues, the need for wildlife conservation and a greater appreciation for the wilderness. The New Paradigm challenges us to create this same level of awareness and appreciation of biodiversity in people who live everyday in close proximity to the wilderness, are the biggest consumers of raw biodiversity and whose lives are in direct conflict with wildlife. For people who live in cities wildlife do not pose a threat to their lives or to their livelihoods, instead wildlife contributes to their quality of life.

Viewed from this perspective it is easy to understand why there is this tension in regard to how city and rural communities value wildlife. The New Paradigm we envision demands that more efforts are expended on developing the capacity, skills and participation of rural communities in conservation efforts so that these communities too can see the perceived values of conserving natural resources that are an inherent part of their living environment for their benefit.

By involving villagers in our biodiversity conservation programs we are increasing the stakeholder ship and the participation of villagers in the learning, caring, management and protection of forest resources and wildlife in their neighbourhood, while at the same time they accrue socio-economic and other environmental benefits for doing so. Through such an approach we hope to alleviate the symptoms that drive marginalized rural communities to degrade their natural environment.

To achieve these goals the SLWCS has concentrated its efforts to conserve and protect the endangered Sri Lankan elephant, a Key Stone species and its habitat outside of the protected areas. Elephants range over long distances and across a variety of habitats that are home to numerous other plant and animal species. As they need very large areas to survive, effective conservation and management of elephants can deliver widespread benefits to people, the environment, and to other endangered, threatened and vulnerable species.

For the past six years through its Saving Elephants by Helping People (SEHP) project SLWCS has being implementing solutions to resolve human-elephant conflict (HEC) in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka. A main objective of SEHP was to develop solutions at the community level to reduce conflict through a better understanding of elephant biology, human needs, capacity building, and elephant management technology.

When the trend was to put electric fences around national parks - considering that nearly 70% of elephants in Sri Lanka range outside of the protected areas - SLWCS through SEHP advocated putting fences around villages and their fields leaving room for elephants to roam without coming into conflict with people. At a cost of over US$120,000 SLWCS has installed two solar-powered electric fences in two villages in the Wasgomuwa region two kilometers south of the Wasgomuwa National Park.

The Wildlife Trust, the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund, Computer Associates International Inc., The US Fish & Wildlife Service, the International Elephant Foundation and the Leo Model Foundation have provided financial support for these efforts. At the time the first SEHP project was initiated in 1997, it was a pioneering effort since nothing like this has been done in Sri Lanka before.

Additionally SLWCS has being providing funds for a Rural Schools Environmental Awareness Program conducted by the Biodiversity and Elephant Conservation Trust and also for a long-term field project to study the ecology and the conservation status of the Sri Lankan leopard.

What we have learned from our projects is that HEC is just the tip of the iceberg in regard to environmental and socio-economic issues that contribute to environmental degradation and conflict in this region. Even though our efforts have made it possible for people and elephants to coexist by greatly reducing crop raiding, yet lack of environmental awareness compounded mostly by economic disadvantages drive these communities to be a continuing threat to the elephant and its habitat. Farming at most can be a risky business - especially in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka where water can be a severely limiting factor. What we have observed is if given the opportunity majority of these people would like to join the mainstream work force.

Sri Lanka has one of the highest literacy rates in the world with 93% of the population literate, yet 78 percent of the population is rural. Most of these people eke out a marginalized existence due to a varied assortment of adverse social, economical and climatological factors.

These literate, but socially and economically deprived people yearn to elevate their standards of living, yet are unable to do so because they lack resources, relevant skills and opportunities to find work in the world outside. They pose the biggest threat to forests and wildlife because due to this lack of socio-economic opportunities they see the rapacious exploiting of natural resources as the fastest way to achieve their aspirations.

In one of the anti-poaching operations conducted in January 2002 at the Wasgomuwa National Park, of five poachers apprehended the youngest was not more than fourteen years old and the oldest not more than thirty years old! Technically they are Sri Lanka's present and future generations and they are already stripping the country of its natural resources to fulfill their aspirations. We can hardly imagine the sort of deprivations that must be driving them to risk their lives to make a living in this manner.

The future projects of SLWCS are based on the lessons we have learned from the projects we have already established in Sri Lanka.

And these lessons show us there is an immediate need to establish a New Paradigm to achieve biodiversity conservation goals in the 21st Century. Hal Borland made an insightful comment in 1964, he said, "the most unhappy thing about conservation is that it is never permanent. If we save a priceless woodland or an irreplaceable mountain today, it is threatened from another quarter tomorrow."

We know now why this is so true! If we spend all our efforts to conserve an ecosystem or a species without making an attempt to diminish the existing human threats to it then obviously our efforts will fail. If environmental conservation is to be successful then we need to have the support of the people who have the biggest impacts on these ecosystems. We have to develop these communities to a level where we can form alliances and partnerships with them to protect these ecosystems for posterity.

In support of the New Paradigm we have restructured the SEHP project to address some of these pressing issues. We have integrated community development, capacity building, human development and sustainable economic-development to elevate local communities to an awareness level where they too can participate as well as receive direct benefits from supporting wildlife conservation projects. Rural youth in particular do not always want to follow on the footsteps of their parents' craft if there are other opportunities available to them.

They are also looking for ways to connect to the world outside to improve their lives and their communities. The majority of the villagers in our SEHP sites live in an eternal cycle of debt. Though our efforts have stopped crop raiding their economic recovery is slow because of this culture of debt. New economic lifeblood needs to be channeled into these communities if most of these people are to come out of their debt cycles and stop consuming the forest and wildlife.

This is also why it is important for community based wildlife conservation programs to have an economic base. Otherwise if they have to depend on grants and foreign aid for their existence they are bound to fail over the long term.

The SEHP Community Development and Capacity Building Program, which will be initiated in January 2003 will conduct English classes, nature studies on local wildlife, environmental education, ecology, wildlife conservation, and help develop villagers skills to operate basic field equipment and use field guides.

Eventually a hands-on computer class will also be incorporated into this program. With their increased awareness, knowledge and new skills these villagers could: 1) be more responsible for the protection and conservation of the elephant and its habitat. 2) Conduct nature treks to eco-tourists and make a living showing what they have learned about the forest through the program, 3) present environmental awareness programs to other village communities furthering the green revolution at the grass root level and 4) connect with the world outside and join the mainstream workforce. Additionally the Community Development Program will open new economic opportunities by helping villagers to establish local grass-root cooperative organizations for sustainable development.

Such as 1) plant nurseries of native herbs, spices and medicinal plants, 2) co-operative fish nurseries, 3) apiculture, 4) agro-forestry, and 5) to offer hospitality services for paying guest to stay in the village to experience village life and observe nature - especially the elephants that come to the forests that borders the village.

As part of this comprehensive project we would be establishing the Field Scouts Program. This is a field observation project to understand the temporal and spatial distribution of elephants in the area, their population biology, feeding behavior, ranging patterns, and density.

The Field Scouts will be a cadre of locally recruited villagers trained by an elephant expert to observe, monitor and record elephant behavior to develop a baseline database on the local elephant population. This information will also help to establish and operate an eco-tourism project being planned for the village.

Another project that SLWCS is hoping to establish is Elephant Walk Thru. It is an innovative forward thinking eco-tourism project to develop sustainable economic incentives for villagers as well as to provide funds to support the local wildlife conservation efforts of the SLWCS.

As stated earlier community-based wildlife conservation projects can be successful only if they can economically sustain themselves over the long-term. With the establishment of Elephant Walk Thru we intend to achieve this goal for the community-based wildlife conservation projects we are establishing in the Wasgomuwa region. For the first time in Sri Lanka, the Elephant Walk Thru project will integrate wildlife conservation, community development, capacity building, human development and sustainable economic development to ensure the long-term conservation of our threatened habitats and their wildlife.

By developing sustainable economic incentives at the community level we hope to convince villagers it pays to conserve wildlife and their habitats over the long-term. At present we are in the process of evaluating the Elephant Walk Thru project through participatory rural appraisal exercises to assess its social, economic and environmental impacts.

SLWCS is developing another comprehensive project to gather baseline data to promote the idea of establishing the first Trans-Climatic Zone National Park in Sri Lanka. The goal of these efforts is to have the total land area encompassing the Victoria Randenigala Rantembe Sanctuary; the Knuckles Forest Reserve; Sudukanda Forest Range; the Wasgomuwa National Park; the Riverine Nature Reserve; Flood Plains National Park; Somawathiya Chaitya Sanctuary; the Minneriya-Giritale Nature Reserve; the Minneriya National Park Complex; and the newly declared Kaudulla National Park managed as one protected area landscape unit.

If these efforts are successful, they will afford protection to a large complement of Sri Lanka's biodiversity as well as to several vital links that connects a diversity of habitats from the Wet Zone through the Intermediate Zone to the Dry Zone ensuring the ecosystem functions of this vast contiguous area in the future.

We are hoping to use several tools to help establish the New Paradigm to ensure the success of our efforts to conserve and protect Sri Lanka's diminishing forests and wildlife - especially outside of the protected areas.

The success of our efforts can be measured only by the attitudinal and socio-economic changes in these communities and the cooperation and support they will give in return to ensure our forests and wildlife will long endure. The great Mahathma Gandhi said, "Nature can take care of our needs, but not our greed." If we can get this simple message across to these communities then we have indeed made great progress going forward with the New Paradigm.

As SLWCS is primarily a private wildlife conservation organization it can only show the way, it is up to the people to complete the journey. For more information about our projects please visit our website at www.slwcs.org.

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